Is that a fact? New fish introduced on Sunday - all fish dead on Tuesday. Could it happen? Yes.
mass death
- Thread starter troutking
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Yes, that is a fact. 24 hour will not kill all fish with or with out parasites. Your Math it 48 hours. Yes? Even At that, it will not tarnish a tank like op's. I'm not arguing with you bro. It is impossible that I new fish can kill a whole tank in 24 with out a large or medium fish dyeing first. Especially with bass bro. Trust me with bass bro. Trust me.
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They could have died from lack of oxygen. Uneaten food or one fish dieing could have quickly depleted the oxygen, to the point where your fish "suffocated", especially if your water temperature is in the 80s. Did you have adequate aeration in the tank? I'm talking about at least 2 airstones with lots of air. Filters alone IME do not reliably supply the amount of oxygen that fish, especially large ones need. An air supply is your "shock absorber" in such cases.
I'm confused about the nitrites reading. Were you finding nitrites before you added the new fish? In that case, the tank wasn't fully cycled or there was some loss of the nitrosomonas bacteria recently. And was the feeding (Sunday/Monday) normal feedings? Or were they lower than normal? Or were they higher due to the new fish? Also, how long have there been nitrite readings?
If there were nitrite readings before adding the fish (especially for a while), and the recent feedings were higher than normal, I can see that an ammonia spike would have occurred and the nitrobacter would have been inhibited, so that the nitrites could have spiked. At such a high temp (78 degrees), and with fish having gone through a low level but persistent nitrite condition, oxygen absorption would have been lowered. With inhibited nitrobacter, a spike in feeding would be enough.
On the other hand...
If the readings are the ones after you found the fish, then I'm really confused. Ammonia should have skyrocketed.
Larger fish are significantly more susceptible to nitrite poisoning than smaller ones.
If on the other hand your feeding Sunday was much less than normal, then despite the nitrite readings, I'm not sure that was the direct cause. It could have been a contributing cause. It could be that there was a problem with the WC and a lot of BB was lost. It could be that the heater went off for 24 hours, but came back on (too late.) It could be some random poison accidentally was introduced to that one tank. (Maybe in the food for example.) I'm drawing a blank on something that can wipe out a whole tank of healthy fish including a brand new health fish other than an introduced poison, heater malfunction, ammonia or nitrites.
Beyond taking tank readings now, I believe (although I haven't done it and you might not prefer to do it) that if you do a mini autopsy on the gills or blood you might see if it was nitrites.
If there were nitrite readings before adding the fish (especially for a while), and the recent feedings were higher than normal, I can see that an ammonia spike would have occurred and the nitrobacter would have been inhibited, so that the nitrites could have spiked. At such a high temp (78 degrees), and with fish having gone through a low level but persistent nitrite condition, oxygen absorption would have been lowered. With inhibited nitrobacter, a spike in feeding would be enough.
On the other hand...
If the readings are the ones after you found the fish, then I'm really confused. Ammonia should have skyrocketed.
Larger fish are significantly more susceptible to nitrite poisoning than smaller ones.
If on the other hand your feeding Sunday was much less than normal, then despite the nitrite readings, I'm not sure that was the direct cause. It could have been a contributing cause. It could be that there was a problem with the WC and a lot of BB was lost. It could be that the heater went off for 24 hours, but came back on (too late.) It could be some random poison accidentally was introduced to that one tank. (Maybe in the food for example.) I'm drawing a blank on something that can wipe out a whole tank of healthy fish including a brand new health fish other than an introduced poison, heater malfunction, ammonia or nitrites.
Beyond taking tank readings now, I believe (although I haven't done it and you might not prefer to do it) that if you do a mini autopsy on the gills or blood you might see if it was nitrites.
Did you feed any of the silversides to your Arowana?
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Let's go over it again. OP had fish in tank for a while. Did a water change either Saturday or Sunday. On Sunday OP added a new fish to the tank. Fed the fish silversides on Monday. Came home Tuesday to a tank of dead fish. Only thing a bit out of whack was a low nitrite reading. What killed the fish?
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